Retire Early Book Review

Think you can't retire early? You may want to read You Can Retire Sooner Than You Think: The 5 Money Secrets of the Happiest Retirees by Wes Moss. This book explains the secrets to retiring early and happy.

I had high hopes for this book. For the most part, I liked it and most of its messages. There were a few things, though, that I didn't like. The first thing I didn't like was the author's choice of his survey participants.

I can understand that he chose to interview his customers. He is a financial planner so it would be convenient to survey them. Plus, he could clearly know how financially prepared they were for retirement.

The problem is that he defines them as middle class, but the incomes he lists are in the one hundred to two hundred thousand range. Middle class is a large range. I would call his clients upper middle class with these incomes.

The problem is that most people do not fit in this category. It would be much more helpful to demonstrate retirement success with people whose incomes were in the average range. Fifty thousand a year is considered to be the median household income.

I can imagine these larger income examples would cause many readers to give up on the book. They would then miss the excellent messages in the remainder of the book. The book does have some great advice such as paying off a mortgage before retiring.

The other thing I didn't like was the return comparisons of different asset classes. The comparisons listed what one dollar in 1926 would be worth in 2012. The comparisons were accurate enough. They clearly demonstrated how stocks outperformed bonds. It showed how much inflation could reduce purchasing power.

The problem is that it went eighty six years. A realistic time frame for investing would be twenty to forty years. Eighty six is way too long. A more realistic timeframe would have been appropriate so investors could accurately judge investing returns.

I really liked the author's bucket method of income generation. This is the highlight of the book, in my opinion. Using the bucket method (and its chart) clearly explained an income-producing portfolio. It is easy to follow. It demonstrates the roles that bonds, stocks, cash, and alternatives play in a portfolio. This is why you should read the book.

I would recommend You Can Retire Sooner Than You Think. It will be a comfortable read for upper income readers. It offers good advice, though, for any investor. You just have to ignore the high incomes that are used as examples if you make far less annual income.